This is an incredibly cynical move by the e-bike industry, and I'm really sad to see an industry org claiming to represent REI, Santa Cruz, etc. peddling this c

This is an incredibly cynical move by the e-bike industry, and I'm really sad to see an industry org claiming to represent REI, Santa Cruz, etc. peddling this crap. What they're asking consumers to do is send them a battery that they paid anywhere between $300 and $1000 new, which 99% of the time has had one BMS pod (10% of the battery) fail because one cell failed and took the pod with it. So they'll recycle this 90% good battery (95+% if you count the enclosure and BMS) - which means basically ship it hundreds of miles, melt it down, throw away the enclosure, and extract the raw materials. This is devastating for the environment. Meanwhile the consumer will buy a new one. Quality batteries are produced in Korea and Malaysia, while the hardware for the enclosures and BMSs is produced mostly in Taiwan and China. Preventing the proper reuse of these components is not just environmentally devastating, it's bad for the American economy. Now, it's true that consumers should not try to fix these batteries without extensive training. They are hazardous to disassemble and require specialized equipment to work on. If you mix cells and don't understand how BMSs work, you can easily start a fire. But it's not rocket science, and all the manufacturers are using pretty much off-the-shelf components. Repair is generally safe as long as you replace all cells in a parallel pod using healthy cells that are otherwise compatible and have matching charge/discharge curves with each other and with other pods in the battery - and use a quality BMS. This is not something that a typical consumer should do, and it does require monitoring equipment to confirm the health of the battery. But this is currently a huge unmet need that should be filled by local shops that train techs and create local jobs, not by melting down batteries en masse. Conversely, by trying to prevent safe routes to economical and environmentally friendly repair, the industry is encouraging people to dangerously hack their batteries to save hundreds of dollars.